Sergey Usoskin spoke on enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in Russia at the Russian Law Week in London

Sergey Usoskin spoke on a panel on recent developments in international arbitration and Russian arbitration reform at the Russian Law Week in London. The event is the largest conference for foreign lawyers on Russian law regularly held by law societies and bars of England and Russia for more than a decade.
Sergey spoke on the practice of enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in Russia. He noted that the recent amendments to corporate law significantly diminish the role of “Russian torpedo” – claims of minority shareholders challenging validity of transactions that are subject to international arbitration involving a Russian company. Russian courts’ judgments in these cases frequently blocked enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in Russia. However recent amendments mean that many of such claims are now deemed to be brought on behalf of the company that leads to the application of arbitration clause to such claims. As the result, the respondent may request to refer such claims to arbitration. Sergey also discussed the recent decision of the Russian Supreme Court that may be interpreted as allowing certain claims involving an insolvent company to be litigated in Russian courts despite the arbitration clause in the underlying contract.